"Because he's been out so long, we don't want to overplay him the first couple weeks," Skiles said. "But we're not signing him to be on the inactive list. We'll activate him right away and we'll get him in a game. We'll watch his minutes a little bit but see what he can do."

Stackhouse was limited to 10 games with Dallas last season due to foot and knee injuries, but he has been working out in Atlanta while trying to get ready for a return to the league.

"He's one of the guys left that I actually played with," Skiles said. "I've known Jerry a long time, and we've been talking the last several days.

"It was good to see him work out. He's really excited about it. With Michael (Redd) down, it's someone like him or it's D-League type players. There's a big difference between Jerry Stackhouse, and nothing against guys in the D-League, but there's a big difference between those two."

The versatility of Stackhouse's game appealed to the Bucks, who have struggled to get to the foul line throughout the season and are ranked 29th in the league in field goal percentage.

"He's always been good in the post," Skiles said. "He possibly could be our second-best post-up player if not our best post-up player.

"I don't want to put too much on him. It's a long time to be out, and just the speed of the game and timing and those kind of things take a little bit to get used to."

Skiles said forward Joe Alexander would not be active for the game against the Rockets, although he continues to make progress and practiced again Sunday.

Alexander has yet to play this season after suffering a right hamstring injury before training camp started, then aggravating the injury in mid-October. The second-year pro was ruled out for eight to 12 weeks at that time.

"Our plan was to kind of wait and get this trip over with, but physically he looked really good yesterday," Skiles said. "We want to be smart about it. We want him to get some offensive review, and we haven't had a lot of time to do that.

"His conditioning is not what it needs to be yet.

"Joe is a hard worker. Obviously it's been a disappointing start to his career. Blake Griffin (of the Los Angeles Clippers) is going through his deal. Sometimes that happens. Hopefully he will get fully healthy and have a nice, long career."